10 most-read mobile commerce blog posts of 2017 from SimiCart

2017 has been a big year for mobile. As we approach the end of this year, It’s the perfect time to take a look back. After all, the best way to prepare for the next year will always be reviewing the previous one. To help you kick-start a successful 2018, we have put together our 10 most-viewed mobile commerce blog posts from the past year. For a better mobile strategy this year to come, take some times to check out these selected mobile commerce tips, insights and trends:

Most customers typically land on your site first. But mobile sites are also where retailers lose most of their customers – with 97% cart abandonment rate. Due to its limitations in user experience, mobile sites causing retailers to leave a huge amount of mobile revenue on the table. Progressive Web Apps are the emerging solution for retailers to maximize conversion rate on mobile sites. They are mobile sites that look & function like a feature-rich app. This technology delivers the best web experience by combining the strengths of websites and mobile apps.

Today’s customers are having increasingly growing expectation and demand for a better shopping experience. Meanwhile, businesses are still finding it difficult to keep up with this rapid change. Customers are willing to spend up to five times as much for a great shopping experience compared to a poor one. Brands looking to leverage their customer experience should be focus their efforts on mobile – where they spend most of their time. Brands at the top of their game are quick to address and meet these expectation by building great mobile experience, while others are still struggling to keep up.

3. Boost Your Customer Loyalty Program with a Mobile App

Mobile app plays an increasing role in brands’ connection with their customers. Forward-thinking brands would know to maximize the power of loyalty program through mobile app – where they spend most of their time. Mobile app offers the best opportunity to fuel reward programs and strengthen relationship with their existing customers. Today’s customers want the ability to take advantage of reward program on the go – with their mobile devices. In-app loyalty schemes for mobile customers should become a critical part of your overall brand loyalty strategy.

We all know that native apps are the best at retaining and strengthening loyalty of your business’s existing customers with unlimited engaging native features – while no other mobile platforms can. In terms of mobile experience and overall performance across devices, native app will always be the king. But how about customer acquisition? Native app may not be the number one source for attracting new users due to its app discovery problem. The cost to acquire a new customer continues to rise when native shopping app becomes a pain to discover and download. Understand native app’s challenge, Google has introduced Instant Apps, a new technology that changes the way users discover and interact with mobile apps.

Push Notification is one of the most powerful functions a mobile app can have to keep customers engaged and informed. The notifications pop up on the screen even when users are not using the app or the screen is locked. This feature is still useful when there is no available Internet connection. Push notifications witnesses 50% higher open rate than email, with click-through rate doubled that of email. Given how fast and convenient push notification is in reaching customers, it depends on each merchant to make a push notification campaign effective or not. In this guide, we cover two most important factors in mobile app push notification: Content and Timing.

This year mobile commerce apps are expected to reach nearly $30 billion in purchase revenue. The fast-growing in-app revenue has triggered the interest of more e-businesses to expand their stores to mobile. The number of apps submitted to the app stores everyday is skyrocketing. With more than 2 million apps in each major app store, getting your app visible to potential users can be a huge problem. As building a great app takes a lot of time and money , it would be a waste if your app gets lost in the crowd and can not be found.

According to Apptentive, browsing in app stores is the most popular method of app discovery (with 63%). That’s why lack of optimization is now the major issue of app discovery. In order to effectively tackle this issue, it requires any app marketer to have a deep understanding of App Store Optimization (ASO).

One of the most effective channels to outreach customers is sending push notifications. It can be the most direct and urgent engagement tool to drive user’ attention back to your shopping app. Push notifications have made it easier for brands to encourage consistent engagement along their customer journey.

As the average user has 119 apps, a huge number of push notifications are pouring into their devices. In a flood of messages, only a few ones may catch their eyes while others become the noise. To stand out from other messages, it’s essential for your brand to make the best of these push notification. Delivering the exact message your customers expect to boost retention and build long-term relationships.

So researching Online Shopper Behavior by generation is extremely essential to e-commerce businesses. Discovering shopping habits of generations always gives retailers surprising results. Do the elderly prefer traditional shopping? Is it true that they can not adapt to modern technology? Are Millennials the people shopping online the most and spending on it the most? How much time does each generation spend online? Which is the most favorite social media of generations? All of your question about online shopping habits of generations will be answered now.

If you need to express something about a product quickly and memorably, product video is the best way. Videos can create a better lasting impression in your customer’s mind, leaving the product features to be experienced rather than just explained. Videos capture your product’s best features and unique use cases while entertaining and engaging your consumers. This is especially useful for products and services which are complex or unfamiliar. Product video can smoothly walk customers through the buying process and eventually boost conversions and sales.

Facebook represents a huge source of potential users for your mobile commerce app. With over 1.8 billion monthly active users, Facebook is the single largest, unified source of new users available today. Such number makes them a promising audience for your mobile app marketing efforts. As a result, marketers are using Facebook to reinvent their mobile app marketing and generate more business, increase traffic and build brand awareness.

Whatever your niche is, facebook is too big to ignore. In order to stand out from the crowd, your mobile business will have to adopt a growth strategy that includes Facebook, and Facebook app links should be a critical part of that.